THE GLOWWORMS CAME BACK. A GARDEN SHED WAS INVOLVED.

After a century away, tiny green lights are blinking again in North Yorkshire.

After disappearing locally for more than 100 years, glowworms are glowing again at Nosterfield nature reserve.

WHAT HAPPENED

Ecologist Pete Cooper and volunteers collected a small authorized founder group, bred glowworms in captivity and reared hundreds of larvae in a Bristol garden shed. Larvae were released at Nosterfield beginning in 2024, and this summer volunteers recorded glowing adult females — the first sign that the reintroduction is taking hold.

WHY THIS IS HOPESLOP

A species vanished for a century, a garden shed became a tiny conservation lab, and now the lights are literally coming back on.

ORIGINAL SOURCEThe GuardianRead the original report

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